1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of gaming, particularly the field of slot-type gaming in which symbols are randomly provided to determine winning and losing outcomes, and most particularly to gaming apparatus with a video format.
2. Background of the Art
Slot machines have been a dominant part of the gaming industry worldwide for over 50 years. While pachinko machines have seen a great deal of popularity in Asia, they are not as well suited for gaming as the traditional slot machine and have not found great commercial success in the United States, South America and Europe.
Slot machines have basically changed little over the years. Whether mechanical or electronic, they still display reels spinning and coming to stop on symbols which, in predetermined combinations, can award winnings or even a potential jackpot. It appears that a large part of the appeal of slot machines is the “mechanical” nature of the spinning reels which induces a belief in players that they are witnesses to a truly random event and that the big jackpot is only a matter of time and statistical fortune, where enough time at a machine will eventually provide a jackpot. While the big jackpot may or may not occur soon after a player engages a machine, slot machines maintain a very accurate payout percentage, usually 92 to 99 percent, with the house retaining the rest as income.
The public perception and reaction to slot machines is a critical part of their acceptance and the perception of the fairness of the machine. When slot machines with video displays showing simulated reels were introduced, the public initially rejected them in favor of the older slot machines with mechanical reels. Even though the new machines simulated the mechanical slots in every way and used the same random number generating circuit and yielded the same percentages as the mechanical slot machines, they were less attractive to the gaming public.
There have been a number of attempts to blend the look and play of pachinko-type games into slot machine play. Many of the attempts have been provided in distinct game play or bonus event play, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,398,219; 6,340,158; 6,311,976; 6,220,593; 6,203,009; 6,203,008; 6,139,013; 6,047,963; 5,882,261; and 5,890,962. Other machines have attempted to use the pachinko-style of ball drop play to select symbols for reels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,879 shows a pachinko-style system where there are three distinct ball drop areas. When a ball in each area drops into a resting slot at the bottom of the ball drop area, a specific symbol is provided that is displayed on a reel that is unique to that ball drop area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,352 describes a pachinko game machine having a card game playing function, to play a game enjoying the atmosphere of playing a card game. When a pachinko ball drops into the specific winning section, the card symbol display section displays on the five display positions five symbols out of the symbols representing the fifty-two cards in a regular deck. The variable winning section changes into a big-winning state the predetermined number of times when the five symbols displayed on the five display positions form one of the winning combinations in the card game. During the big-winning state, a plurality of pachinko balls may drop at a time into the variable winning section. One big-winning state is completed when a predetermined time period lapses after the big-winning state starts, or when the number of pachinko balls having dropped into the variable winning section reaches a predetermined number.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,225 describes a slot-type gaming machine with variable drop zone symbols. A game machine includes a playing field traversed by objects, such as balls. The playing field can have plural drop zones which can be selected by the player using deflectors that control where the balls are launched. Detectors indicate scoring positions assumed by the balls. A payline display displays scored events. A symbol selector is included to select symbols which are variably assigned to the scoring positions and displayed on displays. Balls score symbols which can be displayed in the payline display and affect winning or bonus play. Game machine includes traditional slot machine reels which can work in conjunction therewith.
As one of the problems relating to the use of slot machines and the desirability of using more video components or purely video components is reduced maintenance due to physical wear, the use of mechanical pachinko components is less desirable. As the need to have separate balls traverse pathways is time consuming, it would be desirable to reduce the time of play institution and duration in pachinko style games.
It would be desirable to combine a slot-type video game with the ambiance of a pachinko-type game that overcomes at least some of the problems facing the using of pachinko-type games outside of the Pacific Rim markets.